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The first leveraged crypto ETF in the US, Volatility Shares' 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF, ticker BITX, is set to launch on Tuesday after the SEC chose not to deny its application. This 2x ETF allows investors to double up on their exposure to bitcoin. The ETF will track the CME Bitcoin Futures Daily Roll Index. This development follows numerous traditional investment firms, like BlackRock, filing for bitcoin ETFs with the SEC over the past couple weeks.
In an about-face from earlier this year, the IMF is now suggesting that banning crypto assets might not be an effective long-term risk management strategy for countries. Instead, the IMF recommends focusing on addressing the factors driving crypto demand, enhancing transparency, and recording crypto transactions in national statistics. The institution believes that countries should mitigate risks while leveraging the potential benefits of technological innovation associated with crypto assets. This stance contrasts with the IMF's previous position, which considered the possibility of imposing outright bans on crypto.
JPMorgan Chase has introduced euro-denominated payments for corporate clients using its JPM Coin, expanding its live blockchain application. Launched in 2019, JPM Coin was initially used to move dollars. The system allows wholesale payments clients to transfer dollars or euros within their JPMorgan accounts globally or make payments to other bank customers using the chain. JPM Coin enables always-available and fast payments, making it easier for corporate treasurers to manage liquidity than with traditional methods.
Crypto data providers Nansen and Kaiko have partnered to offer institutions a comprehensive view of insights across centralized and decentralized exchanges. By combining Nansen's comprehensive coverage of on-chain data with Kaiko's evaluation of price volatility, liquidity risks, and market movements, the collaboration aims to help companies better navigate the fragmented nature of transactions in the crypto space. Additionally, the partnership gives users programmatic access to both on-chain and market data without requiring multiple integrations like it would have before.
Visa’s crypto team recently wrote a paper describing the differences between monolithic and modular blockchain technologies. Monolithic blockchains, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, focus on security and decentralization but face scalability challenges. In contrast, modular blockchains aim to optimize specific tasks for efficiency and scalability. They break down the blockchain into interconnected modules, offering flexibility and customization. The article compares the two approaches across various factors, including scalability, adaptability, security, and developer familiarity. The paper makes the point that as the technology advances, the spectrum of modularity in blockchain design will continue to expand, catering to specific use cases and driving future innovation.
This thread provides an in-depth walkthrough of Zora's ZoraNFTCreatorV1.sol contract, which is used when creating ERC721 Drops or Editions on Zora's website. The thread explains how the contract interacts with other components, the functions it contains and how they operate, and the differences between Drops and Editions. It also provides a link to the GitHub repo containing the contract, so you can use it to learn how to build a contract with similar functionality.
This blog explains how crypto apps struggle to auto-scale like traditional cloud-based apps due to the constraints of their underlying networks, leading to higher usage costs. While some attempt horizontal scaling across multiple chains or vertical scaling via offchain logic, such methods have had limited success. The author proposes that an alternative approach of customized, vertical scaling might offer a promising solution.
Alameda, SBF’s infamous hedge fund and part of the FTX empire, is attempting to reclaim $700 million it previously gave to "super networkers" Michael Kives and Bryan Baum of K5 Global. A court filing alleges that Bankman-Fried intended to expand his influence among celebrities and political figures via Kives and Baum. FTX and Bankman-Fried had been known for their extensive spending in sports, arts, and politics. K5 Global denies any wrongdoing and calls the lawsuit meritless, arguing that they believed Bankman-Fried was legitimate when entering into their business relationship with him.
This article explains how LLMs like ChatGPT can enhance blockchain interfaces, assisting user intent translation into transactions and enabling AI-managed projects, potentially helping to foster mass adoption.
Creditors of the bankrupt crypto lending platform, Celsius, have accused crypto market maker Wintermute of colluding with Celsius executives to manipulate the price of the platform's native cryptocurrency CEL through illicit market practices.
Matter Labs, the team behind Ethereum L2 rollup zkSync, has published a “ZK Credo” document outlining its vision for the “Internet of Value.” The principles emphasize trustlessness, security, reliability, censorship-resistance, privacy, scalability, accessibility, and sovereignty, with a focus on enabling user groups to exit or fork from the network at minimal cost.
Mythical Games' free-to-play game, NFL Rivals, has surpassed a million downloads despite launching in a tough crypto environment during NFL's off-season. CEO John Linden reports that about 10% of players have interacted with the marketplace for trading cards.